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by losingyourmemorynow



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Gen, Pre-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-29
Updated: 2018-12-29
Packaged: 2019-09-29 16:31:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17206937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/losingyourmemorynow/pseuds/losingyourmemorynow
Summary: Javic Piotr was always looking for his home.





	Home

Javic Piotr always had an inexplicable affinity for climbing to the sky, as a child he had climbed everything from trees to parked ships from the odd tourist who would drop by his home town for gas. His parents were baffled by it, saying he was destined to be a bird but his soul got confused and found a human body instead. But, Javic knew that the real reason was to see the world how nobody else did. When he was on the ground, or hidden in the underground homes of his community, everything seemed so flat and vast, the domes indicating homes were tiny hills that only served to tell whispers of the community he loved that lived beneath the surface.

But when he was climbing, when he was in the sky he could see everything. The hills were no longer bland, they were rainbows of solar panels that spanned the length of the colony morphing the falling sunlight into picture, welcoming each new visitor with a wave of color against the desert sand. He could see hints of the landscape beyond where he would ever be allowed to step foot, deep into alien territory. As a child, he lived for the moments when he could sneak away from his parents, and convince his younger brother to climb the trees with him and look over the world with him. They would name the shapes in the colors beneath them for hours on end, until their parents would call them in for dinner.

And that’s how, today, Javic found himself sitting in the branches of the tallest tree on the town border, overlooking what was left of his home. Grey rubble. Broken glass. The bare bones of reconstruction.

“’Ey Javic!” A voice came from behind him. Javic turned his head slightly, seeing the familiar face of his friend, Alice, over his shoulder, “Though that I’d find you here.”

“’Ey.” Javic nodded, scooting down the branch and motioning for her to sit next to him.

Javic looked back ahead as he felt the branch shift with his friend’s weight. He gazed over the hills of settled dust, already buried in the sand. The night was quickly setting over the landscape, bringing with it dark skies and faded stars. The chill air bit through the thin jumpsuit he had chosen to wear that day. It served him well during the day, when he was confined to the community bunker or search and recover teams in the striking heat of the sun. Now though, it served little to none in helping him ignore the stabbing cold.

“It’s shit isn’t it?” Alice said, “Seeing our town like this.”

“Yeah.” Javic nodded, looking over to his friend with a small smile. “It’s really shit.”

“I don’t know how you stand looking at it anymore.” Alice said, diverting her attention from the landscape and directing it to Javic. Javic caught a quick sadness in her eyes before she plastered on a smile. “Hey do you remember Antchway Park?”

“Over by the old preschool?” Javic asked, raising his eyebrows. “Yeah, I remember. We used to sneak out of lunch and play time agents.”

“Play?” Alice asked, with a faux gasp, “Pardon me, Agent 24, I was practicing!”

“Practicing?” Javic laughed, “For what? Eight-year-olds with an affinity for paradoxes?”

“Exactly!” Alice proclaimed, slapping Javic’s arm. “I was damn good at it too. Caught you and Gray hundreds of times.”

“Hmmm. Sure.” Javic teased, looking back to the horizon. He took in a deep breath, the cold air scraping his lungs. Still, images flashed through his mind: the ground shaking at the first attacks, his brothers hand in his, the screaming crowds, his brother’s hand slipping away.

“Shit, sorry” Alice said, grabbing Javic’s knee. “I miss him too.”

The two of them sat in silence for a moment, letting the scenery wash over them in waves of reminiscence. Unwittingly, they searched for the picturesque spectrum of color from their childhood, knowing they would find none. Javic only saw those images as vague, beautiful, shapes that he hid safely in the back of his head. When the first waves of attack came by, they ripped apart the landscape, leaving dull rubble in its place.

Thoughts of gray filled his mind. No government had sent warning, no alerts had reached them telling them to prepare for the invasion. Hell, before the first wave of attacks he doubted that anyone could point to Boeshane on a map. The colonies on Boeshane were small, politically unimportant pieces of land. That didn’t matter to the attackers though. They rampaged ruthlessly, and his homeland happened to be in the way. They broke down the colorful shapes and left them as shards in the ground. They killed who they could. They took who they couldn’t.

“You know,” Alice interrupted the silence, “The agency is accepting applicants through next week.”

“Oh?” Javic said turning back to her with a start.

“Not sayin’ we have to or anything.” She said, “But we could apply. It would give us a chance to escape this goddamned rock.”

“Yeah,” Javic said with a small laugh, “Yeah, we could. Need to escape here anyways.”

“We’ll definitely get code names,” Alice said excitedly, “They’d have to call you something Old Earth though… like Jack.”

“Jack?” Javic said alarmed, “That’s so… English...”

“Well, you look English.” Alice chided, earning herself a small slap on the arm.

“Alice!” A voice shouted in the distance, “You come back here this instant! I don’t know where you are, but I know you can damn well hear me!”

“Shit.” Alice whispered, as she swung down the tree, “Sounds like my ma’ found out I snuck out of bed.”

As Alice hit the ground she curtsied up at her friend, shouting to him one last time “Just consider it, yeah? Don’t want to be going there alone! Blessed night!”

“Blessed night!” Javic shouted back, smiling as he readjusted on the tree branch.

But now, as he looked over the fields of dust, he accepted the dark truth: his old home of rainbow hills was already lost to the fates, and in it’s place there were only the ghosts of his old life. The rubble wasn’t going to reform to beautiful buildings full of history. The footsteps in the gravel would not lead him back to his brother. His decision to leave was already spelled out in the stars. All it would take was one small application and a shitton of hope.

Maybe Jack wouldn’t be such a bad name after all.


End file.
